The New World Details

Delirious journey into the unknown

This movie is like no other I have seen for a long time.

Mesmerizing, dreamy, terrifying and silent all at once. The director tries to re-create how the new world might have felt before it became "America", doing away with most preconceptions of the early settlement history.

For most of the time, this means feeling overwhelmed by the sensual beauty and strangeness of the new place. There are many moments when the action goes into one direction, but the camera goes into another: for example, a fighting scene cut through with images of decaying wood.

It's all like a stream of consciousness that is often interrupted, giving a sense of disorientation, as if one was watching it in a delirious state.

Throughout, the movie reflects on language, speaking in strange tongues, and naming – among other things by refusing to speak the name "Pocahontas" even once, as any other less imaginative movie would have done.

An unforgettable movie.

[Highly rated reviewer]

The Slow World

I have no problem with slow films, if they are advertised as such. The New World has a campaign which seems as they we'll be faced with a companion piece to Michael Mann's The Last of The Mohicans - it's not!!! What Malik offers up is a painstaking reconstruction of the real events behind the Pocahontas story. And while this is very interesting, it's not the film I was sold with the advertising.

Colin Farrell is functional in the leading role of John Adams, but I can't really speak for his wandering accent - not that there's a great deal of dialogue in this ponderous film. Q'Orianka Kilcher (who plays the Pocahontas role) is engaging enough, and quite convincing in the role, which is made very difficult due to Malik's dislike of dialogue. This, together with his bizarre use of jump-cuts and blank scenic shots (blank because they hold no dramatic value at all in the context in which he puts them) make the film into a very slow wall-painting you finding yourself eagerly wanting to eventually dry up and blow away. Yes it is shot well, yes the score is functional enough (not James Horner's best work though), and yes, Christian Bale does provide some sort of life in the second half of the film - but it's all too little to go and spend huge amounts of money on an abstract version of a history lesson. This isn't melodrama, it isn't even drama, it's abstract elitist wallpaper!

At 2 1/2 hours it's just too much effort to watch if you feel like being entertained and enthralled instead of being mildly interested (or even perplexed). On a plus note, David Thewlis is excellent, but it's just not enough to save you from the boredom of watching a jumpy wall painting.